Microsoft has released the Windows 8.1 preview for download, but they region-locked it to 13 specific languages, and Dutch is not one of them. So, even though my Surface RT has been completely and utterly English from the day I bought it, I can't install Windows 8.1 and tell you something about it. Those of you who can download it, why don't you tell us what it's like - or you can head to The Verge who got early access. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a little annoyed that we're arbitrarily being left out once again.

Look dude, the front end you might not like. But the performance is soo much faster than Windows 7.

My home machine is a Core 2 Duo from 2006-2007 running 8 and my work machine is a Xeon beast from 2 years ago running 7 ... guess what feels faster? The older computer running 8 and they are mainly running the same software.

Look dude, the front end you might not like. But the performance is soo much faster than Windows 7.

My home machine is a Core 2 Duo from 2006-2007 running 8 and my work machine is a Xeon beast from 2 years ago running 7 ... guess what feels faster? The older computer running 8 and they are mainly running the same software.

So an older Windows computer that has been rebuild to have the OS reinstalled is faster than a Windows computer that has been running for some time?

Try rebuilding the Win7 computer. It'll feel just as snappy.

Now, that's not to say that Win8 doesn't have slightly better performance - it does as it is Win7 with more optimizations and a new GUI.

I'm just saying that you're not comparing apples-to-apples.

If you really want to compare them, then reinstall both computers with freshly wiped hard drives.